Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple (2006)

Slow pace in the most part of the movie.

Excellent, smart action film.

It is not only a funny movie, but it allows a great amount of joy for anyone who watches it.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple This documentary was the story of the beginning, uprising and fall of the Peoples Temple. Peoples Temple was a religious organization formed by Jim Jones in Indiana in 1955. The church grew over the years and became a community or a family, where the members lived together, and worked together to provide for themselves all of their needs. In a sense it was a cultish commune, which was Jones' aspiration since he was an advocate for communism himself, and was frustrated with the hatred towards communism in the US. The group started out small in Indiana then grew larger as it moved west towards California and then eventually ended in with numbers of people over one thousand in Guyana, a country located in northern South America. A suspicious congressman came in to investigate the organizations suspicious flee to South America. Upon learning that some members of the group wanted to leave, the congressman and others will killed while trying to depart. The documentary explains the background and formation of the organization, and goes on to explain the migration of the church. It tells the story of the message and the hope that these people possessed. The controversy lies in the resulting fate of Peoples Temple. After the congressman was murdered Jones convinces members that they will not get away with what has happened at the only way to escape it and to be free is to kill themselves. On that day 909 men, women, and children committed a mass-suicide in the name of Jim Jones and Peoples temple. Several members were not present that day, several left the community before it got to that point, and very few escaped the day of the massacre. This documentary interviews those survivors in order to give the audience a moving, and intense perception of what really went on with Peoples Temple.The editing involved still images with motion, cutaways of interviewees and video footage. Audio footage from Jones' sermons, smooth transitions, and text overlays. The raw footage of the people was not good quality because it was recordings from the 70's, however it made it seem more real that it was amateur footage. The shots from the interviews were quite impressive though, I noticed especially during the credits that the lighting just looked good, plain and simple. The music also played a huge part in making this documentary effective. It was a documentary about a mass suicide and a religious cult so the creepy and suspicious music was appropriate. Also, to create the vibes of happiness, joy, and peace that the members of the group felt, songs of happiness that were sung during sermons by the congregation were played throughout the movie. It was overall a very informative and interesting documentary. It took a very intriguing topic and answered every question I had on the subject in a creative and beautiful way. It provoked thought, emotion, and concern on the matter, and I really enjoyed the documentary.

The horrific story of the Jonestown massacre never stops to stir powerful emotions in all of us. A man who attempted to fight segregation and racism in 1950's Indiana ends up as a crazy communist style dictator and slaughters over 900 hundred of his flock. It is easy to see how Jim Jones managed to attract so many faithful in the beginning. There are lost souls everywhere, and it seems there are more of them every day. He reached to those who didn't matter in a society obsessed with money and success. He provided family to many who never had it. And most of all he made those who believed in him important and unique.But, alas that kind of power and adoration always ends in tragedy. Jim Jones was a drug addict and a fake, and above all a dangerous, disturbed person. The consequence is hundreds of dead and many more damaged for life. There is one question that poses itself. Why is it that in our country, "the greatest land on earth", so many people seek solace in the next world following crazed prophets. The answer to that question might be a sobering one. There is no room for failure and weakness in America. When that happens, you are on your own. Until some Jones, Koresh or Alamo comes along and the real horror starts.

This documentary is indispensible because of the rare footage Stanley Nelson was able to find. However, the narrative of this film leaves out quite a bit about Jim Jones and his People's Temple. After viewing the Jim Jones biography on A&E and reading Deborah Layton's excellent book "Seductive Poison" I get the impression Nelson is only telling one part of a larger more complicated story with his 90 minute documentary. (Possible spoilers ahead) The main problem is Nelson doesn't portay well enough how most of the members of People's Temple were basically fooled by Jim Jones into thinking he was running a church or religious movement. Jones claimed to be a pastor. However, he was deep down a socialist who didn't actually believe in God. And no one could say he behaved like a pastor (multiple sexual partners, drinking/drugging)He basically ran the People's Temple like a communist government. All of the tactics he employed were influenced by Marx, Lenin and various communist countries. So while people thought they were joining a church they were in fact joining a political organization that wanted America to adopt socialism to solve all its social ills. While mamy well intentioned members may not have known what they were a part of before Guyana. I think they saw clearly once they moved to Jonestown that they were in fact involved in a movement that had nothing to do with Jesus Christ. With Jonestown, Jim Jones had created his own little Soviet Union or Cuba. In fact he secretly planned to move his flock to Russia. As Deborah Layton explains in her book, the temple had to claim to be a church so they could get tax breaks and avoid being audited. But they were in fact a socialist organization. Nelson makes a big deal on the DVD of showing how "happy" the members of Jonestown looked on that final night before their suicides. And how it was still a vibrant community. The truth is found in Layton's book which I doubt the film makers bothered to read. She explains that when outsiders visited, Jones instructed his followers to look happy and say they had no desire to leave. And how in fact many residents appeared happy because they were getting a day off work and real food. Also, Layton explains that many members of Jonestown couldn't leave because they'd donated their life savings, SS checks and sold their homes to support the temple. So if they returned to the states they would have to start over with no money. So of course they didn't want to leave. Jones had all their money. I wish the documentary would have clearly shown what really went down with the People's Temple. How Jones took advantage of poor minorities and rebellious young people and manipulated them for his own personal goals. I don't even think Jones set out to form a cult. However, he did want power, wealth and control. And a harem of adoring, young attractive women around him that he could make to anything. In the end, Nelson should have done a better job of explaining the external factors that made members want to stay in the People's Temple no matter what. The definitive book on Jonestown has been written (Seductive Poison). However, the definitive documentary has yet to be made. Don't be fooled by the narrow view of the Jonestown tragedy that is presented in this film. Read Layton's book are watch the A&E documentaries. They help tell the full story about what really went on in Jonestown. However, the "why" is what Nelson fails to answer.

This story is so much more complex than news reports of the Guyana tragedy would have us believe. The members of The People's Temple had such altruistic intentions: they had a vision of a Utopian society where racial harmony and true brotherhood was the order of the day. They wanted to guarantee care for the poor, the elderly, children....and they wanted to create real community. This doco manages to tell the whole story, while honoring the pure intentions of the Temple members, and even shedding light on the paradoxical cult leader, Jim Jones - a man who was impressively liberal and progressive, politically, but frighteningly meglomaniacal and abusive, when it came to leading his "flock." The strength of this film lies in the fact that it isn't just a play-by-play from afar, but a collection of first-hand interviews with people who were actually there, and who knew the key players. A must-see for anyone who was alive and aware went these events took place.